Corrupt knight stops you on the road (Part 1)

Transcript

All right, all right, let me just try to wrap my head around this. This shade, stop, please, don't interrupt me or you will just lose me completely. Fade, yes, because it has a name, but it is a shade.

What did I just say? Yes, of course, I can accept that werewolves, if that's the name you've settled on, exist. I see one every damn moon.

I'd be a fool to deny that reality. But this thing, this shade, because that's the best word we can really use to describe it, it follows you around everywhere and all the time. And you really mean everywhere, all the time, which is comically unfortunate.

Never really thought I would have that experience without knowing it, but no one can see it, which is why I didn't know. Why I don't know. It calls itself, you're familiar.

Now that's a word I am a bit more. Oh, you are not good with waiting, are you? I guess I knew that.

Better in some situations than others. Please, just let me put my thoughts out there before they flee from my mind forever. All right? All right, thank you.

Okay. It says you are its witch. Specifically, that way.

Now, like I was, well, trying to say, it's all right, just please, all right? I have heard of that term before. But a familiar belongs to a witch, not a, well, not the other way around.

And usually, they're a cat, or an owl, or dog, you know, something, well, insignificant. Not that I would ever call an animal insignificant, that would be ironically hypocritical of me. But, well, when you compare a cat to a, uh, mostly formless being, capable of questionable amounts of magic with even more questionable intents, that seems to revel in the exchanging of favors.

Honestly, even I feel pretty insignificant. But I suppose it's a bit late for that, isn't it? Because this thing has gone and asked you to head south.

I'm sure you have your own reasons for wanting to see Lux again, but to be honest, I could care less, as long as he's found. He's one of the few left around here who still seems to have his head screwed on right, or perhaps even at all. So, maybe this exchange you've promised the creature is worth it.

Head south, do, well, nothing as you've described it, just get there, put one foot inside the mine, that doesn't even count as going in, honestly, and be told where to find our tired golden friend. And for some reason, you think there's nothing more to it. Of course there is, or at least I would think so.

It sounds like a horrifying monster that has crept out of the shadows, is made out of shadows, and so I would expect its intentions to belong to the shadows. You know, when you make it back, however and whenever, I have a friend, surprising, I know, who I think would like to talk to you about this fade. Because I believe she also has a familiar, but, you know, a right proper one.

A cat, not an abyss. But, if you will so blindly put your trust into it, then let me at least tell you about something you should expect to see as you head south, or at least someone. Messorim, the lord of Venandi, and if not the bastard on the alabaster horse himself, and at least some of his cronies, the knights of extempore.

Oh, of course I don't like him. He's the head of the army there, nobody likes him. What of it? Girl, let me ask you, when was the last time extempore had any kind of conflict, let alone a war, a battle?

Now, since I know you are new here, I know you don't know the answer. But I am not new here. And I also don't know the answer.

In fact, I would wager quite a lot that no one does. So what do we need such a large and brutal standing army for? For us, it was the answer.

To fight the civilians, had even the thought of stepping out of line. But that warning didn't stop you, did it? Because your dear Fade knows best, don't I? And we did make a deal.

So south you went, one step at a time, you know you can bargain with me for a horse who'd make these travels so much faster, and you watched that looming mountain grow ever closer. And as the hours passed, the speckles of little Venandi, dotting its way up the slopes like trees too stubborn to stop growing in unfit soil, began to come into view. But so did that horse down the road.

Maybe you wouldn't have spotted it so soon if it were not for the dramatic contrast between Rider's stallion and both of their adornments. In as bleak a world as this can be, suddenly all the color around you grew much more vibrant, as the shape, so black and white, it could have been ink on a perfect canvas, drew closer. Why did you stay on the road? What were your thoughts? Was the excitement already starting to bubble up, even though the fear of knowing just what, or should I say who, was approaching grew within you as well?

But you did stay on the road, even as each plod from that pale horse began to become audible. And the Rider came into view, enough for you to see that his eyes were already locked with yours. Oh, there.

You. You are staring at me, woman. You.

You are staring at me, woman. As if your brother, perhaps your husband, were the misfortune to have met me on the field of battle. No, maybe not.

Up on my horse, it was too hard to tell, but now I can see that your expression is different from that. You betray too much fear, without a hint of the hatred that comes with such memories. But you are not alone.

You are not alone. You are not alone. It's just as well, I suppose.

I have not been on a battlefield for quite some time. Still, do I look so much a reaper that you would fear even the twitch of my weapon? What a tragic land you must have come from, for such worrisome thoughts to plague you.

I do know you are not from here, yes. I did not at first. Not from a distance.

You have done better with your appearance, your clothes, your belongings. You could fit in with all the rest, if I did not know otherwise. But I do.

For better or for worse, rumors spread through soldiers like wildfire at any moment they are not otherwise occupied. You have been told it before, but I will say it again. We do not get visitors in this season.

Extempore is not to offer, until the winter has come and gone again, and the fields begin to grow once more. Your mysterious and fortunate circumstances of arrival just make the news all the sweeter to spread. But even if I cared not for the word of those below me, and ignored them as a tyrant would, I would have known regardless.

You have met with my kin, and there are few secrets kept hidden between the four of us. Still, I would have hoped that Umbras speak more kindly of his younger brother, such that newcomers would not wither under my gaze. Hm? Never.

Did you not spend time at the clock tower? A servant. Card.

Curious. He made it sound as if he spoke to you directly. It is no matter, though.

Yes. Umbra is my brother. There are four of us.

Umbra is simply the eldest. Somnum, lord of Cades, second. Thanabris of Arkansas is the youngest, and I am Sorum, lord of Venandi, third.

You are correct. The king is our father. In his illness, he has left Umbra to watch the capital, and to us other three, the remaining major settlements.

Hence why Extempore is divided into the four holdings that it is. But the day goes on. You have a question I can see in your eyes, but I will ask you one first.

Would you like a ride? A ride. Do sit on my horse and be taken to wherever it is that you are going.

I can only assume that it is south on this road. You are aiming for the wilderness for whatever reason. Or to Venandi, my home, as it is the only civilization remaining in that direction, far as the island may stretch south.

Would you want that? The road is long. You have over a day left to walk, and would need to camp.

On horseback, you would instead be able to find the inside of a tavern, a bed before nightfall. Yes, I only have one horse, but Caligo is beyond strong enough for the both of us, don't worry. You can, of course, say no if you wish.

I will take no offense. Some prefer to walk. Then step closer, and I will help you.

Do not look so afraid. It is the woods that should worry you, not the rider that protects his people against them. All right.

There. Seated comfortably? Don't allow me to slip behind.

There. Is that better? Well, then you did not actually answer.

You are going on to Venandi, correct? Then on we will go. Now, since we're on the move, what was your question from earlier? You did have a question, didn't you? When I had mentioned my brothers.

Ah, Lux, of course. No, he's not one of my brothers. There are only four of us no more.

Lux is a lord from. .. well, a time before my brothers and I were.

Back when my father was healthy, which he hasn't been for quite some time. There's the key.